Wed 25 November 2020:
For more than four years, the Maj Gen Justice Paul Brereton has investigated allegations that a small group within the elite Special Air Services and commandos regiments killed and brutalised Afghan civilians, in some cases allegedly slitting throats, gloating about their actions, keeping kill counts, and photographing bodies with planted phones and weapons to justify their actions.
The findings of Brereton’s report, released on last Thursday (19 November), are confronting and damning.
Brereton describes the special forces’ actions as “disgraceful and a profound betrayal” of the Australian Defence Force.
The report found:
- Special forces were responsible for dozens of unlawful killings, the vast majority of which involved prisoners, and were deliberately covered up.
- Thirty-nine Afghans were unlawfully killed in 23 incidents, either by special forces or at the instruction of special forces.
- None of the killings took place in the heat of battle, and they all occurred in circumstances which, if accepted by a jury, would constitute the war crime of murder.
- All the victims were either non-combatants or were no longer combatants.
- A total of 25 perpetrators have been identified either as principals or accessories. Some are still serving in the ADF.
Some of the incidents described in the report are deeply troubling. Evidence suggests junior soldiers were instructed by their superiors to execute prisoners in cold blood as part of a “blooding” process to give them their first kill.
“Typically, the patrol commander would take a person under control and the junior member … would then be directed to kill the person under control,” the report found. “‘Throwdowns’ would be placed with the body and a ‘cover story’ was created for the purposes of operational reporting and to deflect scrutiny.”
The chief of the ADF, General Angus Campbell, promised to act on the Brereton report’s “shameful”, “deeply disturbing” and “appalling” findings about the conduct of Australian special forces.
In March 2020, ABC news reported Extraordinary footage captured on the helmet camera of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan.
Four Corners has obtained video which shows a Special Air Service (SAS) operator shooting an unarmed Afghan man three times in the head and chest while he cowers on the ground.
His death took place within three minutes of the soldiers arriving in the village.
The killing was one of a series of cases uncovered by Four Corners that may constitute war crimes.
GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: THE FOLLOWING STORY CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE, IMAGES AND CONFRONTING VIDEO, INCLUDING FOOTAGE OF A SHOOTING, WHICH MAY DISTRESS SOME READERS.
The Four Corners footage showed an #Afghan man named #DadMohammad being shot and killed at close range by an #Australian Special Air Service Regiment (#SAS) soldier in the #Uruzgan province of #Afghanistan.#WarCrimes pic.twitter.com/qr6EaMjQye
— ahmed nm ayob (@ahmednmayob) November 24, 2020
The alleged incident, which was one of a number of allegations uncovered by Four Corners, occurred just three minutes after their helicopter swooped down near the village of Deh Jawz-e Hasanzai.
Before the soldier started shooting, he could be heard twice asking a nearby patrol commander “You want me to drop this c***?”
An Australian Defence Force (ADF) investigation later ruled the soldier acted out of self-defence and deemed the killing as justified.
The dead man’s name was Dad Mohammad, and he was thought to be 25 or 26 years old.
Four Corners tracked down Dad Mohammad’s father, Abdul Malik.
He said his son was married, with two daughters.
Abdul Malik was away when Dad Mohammad was killed, and said he returned immediately to bury his son.
“His face had wounds. I covered his face and told them to take him to the graveyard,” Abdul Malik said.
“After his burial, I came back to see the place. I saw the wheat field where he was killed, the wheat was flattened all around.”
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